


Worth a Thousand Words

by CaptainAwesome242



Series: Iron Dad Bingo Prompts [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dorks, Fluff, Gen, Irondad Bingo 2019, Memes, Photographs, Precious Peter Parker, Science Bros, Selfies, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-10 02:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20520452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainAwesome242/pseuds/CaptainAwesome242
Summary: Prompt - Fluff“So this is Ned?” he asked as if he hadn’t already asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to run background on the boy, “nice picture, I dread to think what you have for me,”Peter stilled for a moment, eyes flicking sheepishly away as he let out a nervous laugh.Tony frowned, “Wait, does this mean you have a really bad picture of me? As if such a thing could exist?”“Actually,” Peter’s hand came up to the back of his neck, “actually there isn’t... I don’t have a contact picture for you,”





	Worth a Thousand Words

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the phrase 'a picture is worth a thousand words'

_“Pizza’s here, Boss,”_ F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced, bringing the two occupants of the lab out of their trance-like states.

Peter recovered first, hopping down from his stool, “I’ll get it!”

Tony watched with a snicker as the kid scurried from the room. He was incredibly energetic for a teenager but there were only three things that could get him moving _that _quickly; superhero stuff, literally anything even vaguely nerdy, and copious amounts of food. Any combination of the aforementioned only made him more excited, so to be able to use his Spidey strength to run downstairs to get the several pizzas and return to their evening of tinkering with the Avengers tech was an absolute dream come true.

Well, dream come true for the bundle of energy, not so much for the old man trying to keep up with him, Tony thought, the smile playing on his lips betraying his true feelings on the matter.

He leaned back on his stool, stretching his back until it popped. A sharp buzz pulled his attention across the room and he spied Peter’s phone on his workstation, lying innocuously amongst strewn papers, gadgets, and, to Tony’s amusement, candy wrappers. He rolled his eyes, returning to what he was doing only to be interrupted again by another buzz, followed by another.

Tony glanced over at the phone, which buzzed again even as he stared at it. He pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, wondering what was so important that required multiple texts but didn’t warrant a phone call. Then again, he thought, knowing Peter’s tendency to spam his own text inbox and his generation’s apparent aversion to verbal communication it shouldn’t really be that surprising. Ned probably just had a new meme to show him.

Peter rushed back into the room laden with pizza boxes, “Mr Stark, you should have seen the pizza guy’s face when I gave him that tip you left; I think you made his entire year!”

Tony smirked. $200 wasn’t much to him, and he didn’t do this often, but every now and then he left a huge tip. Not to the waiters in fancy places who were more than well off, but to the pizza guys worked day and night to pay the rent, the harried waitresses who put up with so many people’s shit just to make ends meet. Those were the people needed a boost.

He wandered over to the table where Peter was laying out the pizza boxes, covering the entirety of the small table. At one time Tony would have thought this much food would be going overboard, even by his standards, but having seen Peter’s regular intake he knew it wasn’t. He also knew that Peter liked to take the leftovers home with him, so he always made sure to order too much; it hardly put a dent in his wallet.

He flipped open the nearest box and grabbed a slice as Peter went to the fridge, “Oh, your phone was buzzing like crazy a moment ago, thought the world might have been ending,”

Peter returned with two sodas in hand and passed the diet one to Tony, as per Pepper’s request, and kept the regular one for himself, “Ah it’s probably just Ned, or May, I’m sure it’s nothing,”

Tony made a face at the diet soda in his hand but cracked it open all the same, “Remember the last time you left May hanging? She called me and demanded to know why I was working you so hard that you couldn’t reply to her messages? Ringing any bells?”

Peter laughed around a mouthful of pizza, “That was hilarious, your face! Yeah, like that!”

Tony rolled his eyes and relaxed his scowl, refusing to give Peter the satisfaction even if his laugh took years off his life. He jerked his head in the direction of Peter’s phone.

“Alright, alright!” Peter picked up another slice and shoved it in his face before walking over to his workstation.

He opened his phone with his thumbprint and flicked his eyes over the screen before letting out a bark of laughter, loud and mirthful.

Tony glanced over. He wasn’t nosy, by any stretch of the definition (something Peter would vehemently protest in light of the so called Baby Monitor Protocol, although Tony would classify that as ‘justified concern’) but he was curious.

“What’s so funny? May try cooking again?” He asked lightly.

“No, it’s from Ned, look at this,”

Peter turned his phone around to show Tony the meme filling the screen. The top half was his own face from that fateful press conference where he revealed his alter ego to the world; the caption beneath quoted himself saying, “The truth is,”

The quote was completed on the bottom half of the screen; “I am Iron Man,” in front of a picture of someone in a cheap Iron Man costume using an iron to press a shirt.

Peter, still snickering, watched Tony’s face for a reaction, “Get it? _Iron_ Man?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Tony said with an eye roll, and an exasperated laugh, “that from Ned?”

“Yeah,” said Peter, turning his phone back around to type faster than the speed of light, “I’m gonna tell him I showed you, he’s gonna freak!"

“It’s good to freak your friends every once in a while, just ask Happy,”

Peter stopped typing and threw Tony a sceptical look, “I’m not sure he’d agree with you on that,”

Tony only shrugged in a way to suggest _eh, each to their own_.

Peter’s phone buzzed in his hand so consecutively it was almost constant and he grinned, showing Tony the screen again, “See?”

Tony watched the capital letters, keyboard smashes and assorted emojis flash by on the screen with unconcealed amusement. He glanced at the top of the page and tapped on the contact ID to enlarge the image of the boy pulling a goofy face.

“So this is Ned?” he asked as if he hadn’t already asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to run background on the boy, “nice picture, I dread to think what you have for me,”

Peter stilled for a moment, eyes flicking sheepishly away as he let out a nervous laugh.

Tony frowned, “Wait, does this mean you have a really bad picture of me? As if such a thing could exist?”

“Actually,” Peter’s hand came up to the back of his neck, “actually there isn’t... I don’t have a picture for you,”

Tony blinked, “Eh?”

“Well, I mean, we haven’t exactly taken any pictures together, which is fine by the way, and I figured it was weird to use a stock photo from the internet or something,”

Tony was silent for a moment, trying to untangle Peter’s ramble before he said, “Nope, sorry, this won’t stand, give me your phone,”

“What?” Peter asked dumbly.

“Your phone, kid, hand it over,”

Tony snatched the cautiously offered phone and opened up the selfie camera, “Get over here,”

* * *

Later that evening, when Tony texted him to confirm their next lab session the following Thursday, an image of the pair of them laughing pulling ridiculous faces flashed up and Peter grinned.

His camera roll was also mobbed by freshly taken pictures, some with both of them, some just of Tony or himself, all of which would be printed and stuck around his walls in no time.

Peter smiled again, settling into bed. His last thought was how Ned was totally gonna _die_ when he saw all those photos.


End file.
